January

Well. Blimey. It's been a while...

You'd know from Js blog that C is well again - apparently better than ever! It's not long now before she gets here: around a week. She has moved into her flat, though not all her flatmates are there yet. I guess they're all trying to maximise earning time or something.

We had a nice New Year, staying out dancing (yes me dancing) until about 1:30 I think. Not a bad night.

The weather has been pretty wintery, but the dire warnings we got last week didn't really eventuate. No sign of snow anyway. The norovirus and other lurgies have been circulating so a number of the team at work have been off sick. Now J is sick as well but she continues to battle into work each day (thereby spreading it to everyone there as well of course, not to mention those on the train). I haven't got it yet but don't imagine I'm immune either. It'll probably wait until C & O are here.

My laptop screen died (inverter), so we tried to register with Ebay. We got a nice welcome email, made a purchase and got suspended all within 10 minutes. They cancelled the purchase but we had already paid so goodness knows where that leaves us. We have sent them all the ID they need but meanwhile I have no laptop. My guess is that there was a previous tenant registered at this address, and Ebay have suspended us until we can prove they no longer live here and we do. Frustrating, I can tell you.

JP is on holiday so the book moves along slowly. I will be back in the archives shortly to fill some more gaps, but this time will check it is open first! Ironically, now that I'm not in NZ I have found a need for stuff from the National Archives in Wellington. It's always the way isn't it.

Mum is starting to plan for a trip over here in May/June. She will come to Brizzle for a look, then we'll go to Italy, and then she'll go to Germany to see Ursula and meet Antje's Mum. That's the current outline at any rate. W, R and L are over in June/July so we have to see how we can fit in with them as well as manage our move to Edinburgh, find accommodation and jobs again, etc. That last part is a bit daunting as we know absolutely no-one up there.

I talked to W last week and it was great to hear that the business is going well. It's about time some others got in touch I reckon, but then if my own family can't get around to making a phone call I can't expect too much from 'friends'. But I'm not bitter.

No photos because we haven't done much. We did go to see other people's photos at a Wildlife photo exhibit. There were some very striking shots indeed, and it is amazing the lengths some of the photographers go to for that 'just right' snap. Interestingly, most were taken with digital cameras.

We have put our electricity bill problems in the hands of the watchdog organisation. Curiously we just got a bill from our new provider cancelling most of the old bills and saying we've overpaid L150. Of course, that's as wrong as all the other bills. Sigh...